In the field of wireless networking, modern mobile stations, such as cell phones or wireless broadband-equipped laptops, typically utilize a radio access network (RAN) to connect to a packet data network (PDN), by which they gain access to hosts on the Internet via Internet Protocol (IP). This connectivity is provided by mobile network operators, which build and maintain networks of radio access points, networking switches and gateways, and high-bandwidth links that are compliant with certain standards. One such standard is called Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Other standards are General Packet Radio System (GPRS) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). The LTE, UMTS and GPRS standards are published by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (“3GPP”), a not-for-profit industry consortium.
Mobile stations that provide IP packet-based connectivity are supported by networking gateways that send packets downstream to the mobile stations and receive packets from the mobile stations addressed for upstream network nodes or network nodes on the public Internet. When a gateway performs a procedure to locate an inactive mobile station to request the establishment of a signaling connection, this process is known as paging.